Report submitted by 'Oz'

Offshore Mako Report North Padre Island, TX March 2nd, 2009 Tweet

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The wind blew and seas picked up with the weekend coldfront. The marine forecast looked good for Monday and Tuesday but as of Sunday afternoon, the buoy was still reading over 9'. Chris had talked about a possible trip but nothing ever solidified with the front passing. This dampened any thoughts about making a trip out period and assumed the boat would stay docked this trip. Around 11pm Sunday night Chris calls me up and says the buoy has now dropped to under 5' and still dropping, therefore he's going, and to pack up if I wanted on and be at the house by 5:30am. No prob, Rockstars don't need sleep. Only problem was we were short on crew. Asked Scott and he had to work in the morning, Curtis couldn't get clearance from work until the next morning, and Shindle had just got back home in S.A. Not having any luck to get anyone on just a few hours before departure, it would be just us along with Chris' girlfriend.

[Few hours later...]

We get the boat to the boat ramp and break the jetties by 6:30. Those few hours made a difference as the surf had laid quite a bit. Gentle rollers with a light NW wind. Our master plan was to target some Grouper or possible AJ's and meanwhile have a couple shark baits out. Not long and we are there. Chris and his GF dropped baits down while I jigged. First jig down within 10 seconds was cut off by a King or Cuda. Tied another one on and nailed a Jackfish. Cool I thought. Kept at it and couldn't get anything past the Jacks. We boat several, and Chris and his chick begin to get some nice Snapper to the boat. We release several and due to not wanting to keep any, they put on bigger baits, still after Grouper. Well the Grouper never cooperated. I myself had a decent fish on a big bait on the bottom that spit the hook without any teethmarks in the bait but no telling what it really was.

Not long and on Chris' Grouper rod he hooks up on a good fish. Mono leader and acting very strangely for a would-be shark... could it be???

The fish would swim slowly into and out of the rig fraying up the line pretty bad. Fortunately the line held up and after 20 minutes or so Chris gets the fish just under the boat and we can see it. The magical culprit is.... arrrgg a Shark. Oh well, its a decent shark. Chris gets it up and we notice it is a Sandbar, a grander Sandbar... fat and healthy, looks to be pushing well over 200lbs.

We subdue the shark and get a tail rope on to get a quick picture. With it calming down, we bring it up on the transom to get a couple quick pics...

We quick get the fish back into the water and she swims away back to the hordes of Jackfish circling below.

Speaking of Jackfish, I begin jigging again while Chris rigs back up. I immediately get a Jack... then another... then another... and so the story moves on.

We take a break and have an afternoon snack. The wind has died completely and the water is slicking off. The Grouper bite is not on but there is action of a different sort. After a while we get some killer live baits and put them out under a float hoping for something *purple. Meanwhile I continue to jig and slay more Jacks while things calm down. By now it is around 3pm and while we haven't gotten anything extraordinary, it has been a fun day on the water.

Chris is in the process of dropping a bait straight down and I am on the bow jigging. A dead calm silence and erie feeling is being emitted through the area. Then all of a sudden I thought Chris had started the motor up and look back seeing it was my 80W getting smoked and then instantly a Mako going airborne so high it would need flight permission from the FAA. It is a priceless image burned into my memory, of a large Mako less than 20yds from the boat, grabbing some major hang-time, with slicked off seas and sun beating down on the dripping splashing water with a perfect blue sky backdrop. A totally unexpected moment but extremely memorable.

We frantically get things sorted and I grab the rod as Chris is packing up and reeling in the other lines. The shark soon sounds and comes up launching out of the water once again. Hell Yeah. Chris' GF is reeling in a Grouper bait and thinking she was stuck, actually to find out there is a fish on. Chris starts the boat to move us away from structure and we kill the motors to get down to business. Frantic herself, Chris' gf hands him that rod as she reels in the other Mako bait, a live Jack under a float. A few minutes elapses and we get things running pretty smooth. Chris is hooked up with his fish almost straight down and mine is about 50yds out swimming around. Chris' girlfriend grabs the camera again and begins taking photos. The next photo she would take would prove to be a killer one and timing was pretty dead on. She was able to catch a moment in time when the shark breached once again and was on its way down, still airborne.

After about 5 more min Chris has his fish up to the surface and subdued. It is another Sandbar.

Still strapped in, I quickly move over and help him with a quick release. The fish swims off and the lines are now cleared to deal with the Mako. Up until this point I haven't put any real pressure on the shark, just keeping the line tight and letting him do his thing until we got done with the other fish.

With things clear and organized now, all our attention goes to the Mako. I give it a little more drag and work her with ease. A good amount of mass could be felt through the rod.

The Mako would come up to the boat and do a few laps on the surface before sounding for a couple minutes...

A few more minutes would pass before we get it back up to the boat again. The fish had expended a lot of energy, however it is well known that Mako's are vastly unpredictable. We have it up along the boat and Chris has a rope cleated off and clips into the leader. If you look closely at the high-res photo, you can see a resemblance to one of the best classic suspense/horror films of all time as the shark is at a stalemate with its head shaking out of the water.

We get the shark back to the boat and we have the leader as it paces around in a circle. We are in good shape thus far.

We relax for a few more minutes to get the shark tired enough to deal with. It works and we are able to get it along side the boat. It is a very healthy female Mako, estimating around 9' - 9 1/2'.

Chris' chick is able to continue taking some great pics for us. (notice what appears to be black paint on the side of the sharks cheek and face).

The shark as expected retaliates briefly.

With the Mako finally subdued at the boat, we haul the leader up as high as we could to get the head of the shark out of the water to get a picture and cut the leader.

After a 45 minute fight, we land and release the shark as we cut the leader. The hefty Mako swims off into the abyss, probably as happy as we were. The way things worked out with this fish was very smooth and couldn't have gone any better. Great team work with a small crew. We are now right on time to head in and hit the jetties by sunset. Awesome.

Overall it was an awesome trip with some awesome fish! Thanks to Chris again for a great trip and while we did not get any of our sought after Grouper, we did get a few surprises including a flying monster. I love the beach and surfishing more than anything, but if the growing sargassum problem persists, i'll probably be offshore a bit more like Chris himself.

Thanks again to a fun safe trip and until next time...

See ya on the water

-Oz

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